Tuesday, July 14, 2015

1964 Auravision records were kids' party favor at Mays' house party

When the unsold hoard of 1964 Auravision records was
dispersed into the hobby in the early 1970s, it was believed that the Willie
Mays record was scarcer than the other 15 players in the issue.

With the advent of eBay, we now know that the scarcity is more perception than reality, but it is a bit of hobby lore that persists to some degree.

An article in the March 2, 1965, issue of The Sporting News offered a glimpse into what may or may not be a disparity in surviving numbers of the Auravision discs.

Headlined “Small Fry Load Up on Cake, Ice Cream at Willie’s
Party,” the boxed feature was written by Art Rosenbaum of the San Francisco Chronicle.

The article, in its entirety, follows . . .

Willie Mays gave a block party for
the neighborhood kids on February 16. The invitation list was provided by the
Forest Hills Improvement Association and some of the parents came to pay their
respects to the Giants’ star.

“We took the group from the three
blocks around my new house,” said Willie. Then he looked at the growing crowd.
“I guess the others just came.”

Each guest received a Willie Mays
color-picture recording, an autograph and all the punch, potato chips, cake and
ice cream it was possible to eat. The cake was decorated on top like a baseball
diamond with toy baseball players.

One family, the Labaughs,
contributed nine children of all sizes.

“These kids,” Mays added, pointing
around the room, “didn’t come to see me. They came to eat.”

He wasn’t
too far off base. His friend, Robbie, in charge of refreshments, reported six
jumbo-sized bags of potato chips had suddenly disappeared. Another emergency
developed; a full punch bowl of ice cream had quickly become an empty bowl.

Willie’s
decorator-plus home was not harmed, though the gold carpet may need extra
cleaning from spilled cake and bubble gum. The children were well-dressed and
well-behaved. They seemed impressed, but not very awed, by the Great Mays.

One brash
youngster, a boy named Jimmy, didn’t seem awed at the carpet. “Not a bad pad
you got here, Willie,” he said.

An article in the August, 1963, issue of Ebony magazine said that about 75
children attended the TSN-referenced party. The article offered a color
pictorial tour of the home.

That gold carpet that Rosenbaum detailed had been mentioned
in an earlier TSN article about Mays’ new home on Mendosa Avenue in what writer
Jack McDonald called “the fashionable Forest Hill district.”

According to McDonald, the nine-room home into which Mays
moved had cost the Giants’ star $90,000. Mays could afford it; he was about to
sign his 1963 contact that would make him the fourth $100,000 player in
baseball history, joining Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio and Stan Musial at that
exalted salary level. Mickey Mantle joined the $100,000 club a few weeks later.

McDonald added, “Willie did all the furnishing himself. He
picked out every piece of furniture and every picture on the walls. Everything is in excellent taste.” Mays told
the writer, “I felt everything should be something I really wanted to live
with. So when I went shopping and saw something I liked, I bought it.”

Here’s how McDonald described Mays’ home . . .

All the
pieces blend beautifully. The living room drapes alone cost $3,000. His
white-walled living room with $25 per square foot gold carpeting looks out on a
breathless panorama that takes in the Golden Gate Bridge, Sutro Forest, Twin
Peaks, St. Francis Wood and Angel Island.

A circular
marble living room coffee table with gold legs is set off with an
attention-commanding burnished gold lion’s head. There’s a pleasant gas-log
fireplace and plenty of conveniently placed ash trays.

A circular
staircase, leading off the living room to the garage below, allows him to get
to his lime-green 1962 Eldorado convertible almost as quickly as if he slid
down a fireman’s pole.

This dining
room, done in French Provincial, has a circular table and his white Ransfil
china plates have gold rims and are monogrammed ‘WM’ in engraved Old English.
The insignia also decorates his wine goblets and the glass doors of the showers
in his three bathrooms, taps of which are gold plated.

Willie has
five phones in the house, and four TVs, one a $900 color set. The three others
are portables. His bedroom has a king-sized bed. ‘I like plenty of room to
thrash around,’ he said. A closet, running over 20 feet, the length of the
bedroom, holds his many sports jackets and other wearing apparel.

There is a
glass-walled billiard room and an alcove he uses to house his many trophies. The
den has a small library. ‘I’m a newspaper and magazine reader, not a book
lover,’ Willie explained. The books are confined to an Encyclopedia set, a
Bible and a new-style abridged Webster dictionary.

Though
Willie lives alone, except for a maid who comes in days to tidy up and make the
beds, his place doesn’t have a ‘bachelor’ look’.

Why does he
need nine rooms? He’s not a party-thrower. His idea of a good time is to have a
few friends drop in for a game of cards, four-handed whist, bridge or gin
rummy. Does he play poker? ‘Once in a great while,’ he said. ‘But Alvin Dark
doesn’t like it.’ Willie has a well-stocked locker, with Scotch, bourbon, vodka
and gin. He never drinks himself but likes to pour for guests.

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About Me

I have been a baseball card (and other bubblegum cards) collector since the age of three. I am the former editor and publisher of the sportscards and memorabilia periodicals and books at Krause Publications (SCD, et al). I am the former editor of the Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards.